Abstract: The effects of using two-dimensional video projection together with parametric three-dimensional spatial audio reproduction system are examined in this study. The discrepancy between the auditory and visual events, and differing depth cues, are evaluated by means of subjective evaluations using the method of adjustment. The results show the Directional Audio Coding to be well suited for immersive audiovisual setups allowing a large area of viewing positions.

Abstract: This paper undertakes a detailed comparative analysis of both PESQ and VISQOL model behaviour, when tested against speech samples modified through playout delay adjustments. The adjustments are typical (in extent and magnitude) to those introduced by VoIP jitter buffer algorithms. Furthermore, the analysis examines the impact of adjustment location as well as speaker factors on MOS scores predicted by both models and seeks to determine if both models are able to correctly predict the impact on quality perceived by the end user from earlier subjective tests. The earlier results showed speaker voice preference and potentially wideband experience dominating subjective tests more than playout delay adjustment duration or location. By design, PESQ and VISQOL do not qualify speaker voice difference reducing their correlation with the subjective tests. In addition, it was found that PESQ scores are impacted by playout delay adjustments and thus the impact of playout delay adjustments on a quality perceived by the end user is not well modelled. On the other hand, VISQOL model is better in predicting an impact of playout delay adjustments on a quality perceived by the user but there are still some discrepancies in the predicted scores. The reasons for those discrepancies are particularly analysed and discussed.

In October 2012 I wrote the first blog post welcoming you to QoMEX’13. Today, we’re only a bit more than 24 hours away from the open ceremony and since October 2012, a lot happened. The QoMEX’13 organizing committee made great efforts to compile a strong technical program which I’d like to highlight in this post:

I personally hope that the carefully crafted technical program, the social events, the scientific discussions, and your other activities in Klagenfurt and its surroundings, most importantly the lovely Lake Wörthersee, will make your QoMEX 2013 participation worthwhile and a memorable experience.

The 2nd Qualinet Summer School on “Crowdsourcing and QoE Assessment” intends to deepen knowledge in crowdsourcing and using crowdsourcing for subjective user studies. The goal is to bring together advanced testing methodologies and quality assessment of novel applications. The summer school takes place in Patras, Greece from 21 – 24 September 2013. The number of places is limited. Therefore, we encourage you to apply and register for the Qualinet summer school as soon as possible.

The summer school will cover the following topics.

Crowdsourcing in general, common platforms and existing QoE frameworks

Best practices and mechanisms in crowdsourcing, data quality, incentives and gamification

The application for the Qualinet Summer School is now open and closes July 21, 2013.

The application and registration forms can be filled in online until July 21, 2013.

Registration fee is 250 Euro.

The number of places is limited to 30 participants.

Submission of an extended abstract is not required for participation, but strongly recommended, as submissions with abstract and poster presentation will have priority over other applications.

Applications and the extended abstract submitted by students will be evaluated by the Organizing Team and the Qualinet Chair. Based on the evaluation, eligible students will be selected who will attend on a free of charge basis and who will be awarded a Qualinet scholarship of 500 Euro.

Submission of Extended Abstracts

Students are encouraged to submit an extended abstract of two pages describing their current research with respect to the topic of the summer school. Submitted abstracts must be at most two pages long, including all figures, tables, references, appendices, etc. The extended abstracts must be formatted according to the ACM conference proceedings format. The abstract is to be submitted via Email until July 21, 2013 to:

PhD Students are welcome to participate in the summer school, especially when working in the field of quality assessment, subjective user studies, or crowdsourcing. MS Students, Post Docs, and Researchers working in the same field are welcome to participate (upon availability).

Joint Group Work

The concept of this summer school is to form research groups of PhD students supervised by a tutor. Thereby, the PhD students will be grouped according to their research interests. Before the summer school, these groups will already start discussing about potential research questions and how to investigate them. A poster presentation of the group’s ideas will take place during the summer school in order to foster collaboration and innovation between all groups.

During the summer school, the groups will get time to jointly research on their common topic with the support and help of the tutor. Crowdsourcing experiments may be conducted and the results analyzed statistically in order to investigate new and interesting research questions. In the end, this may result in a joint publication of the research group.

Please find our QoMEX 2013 points of interest here. It includes the workshop venue, restaurants within walking distance and in the city center, the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, and the suggested walkway to the lake where we will board the boat towards the conference dinner.

The fifth international workshop on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX) will bring together leading professionals and scientists interested in evaluating multimedia quality and user experience. QoMEX is the flagship workshop of the European COST action Qualinet, which serves as its technical and financial sponsor. After San Diego (2009), Trondheim (2010), Mechelen (2011), and Yarra Valley (2012), QoMEX 2013 will be held in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria.

Multimedia is a ubiquitous part of modern life; content is delivered to a wide variety of devices both fixed and mobile, the consumption environment can vary dramatically, and users increasingly demand fulfilling interaction with their media. Evaluation, both objective and subjective, of separate audio, video, or image content is well established, but there are substantial challenges in assessing users’ experiences of mixed content. This is exacerbated by the diversity of devices, interfaces, consumption environments, and content prevalent in today’s market. Increasingly, evaluation approaches must include psychological, perceptual, and contextual dimensions to truly represent and measure the users’ experiences. Understanding and modelling how users react to and perceive content and applications will inform and improve new applications and lead to better user experiences.

The program is available here and we are happy to announce the talk of Thomas Richter on “HDR Image Quality in the Evolution of JPEG XT” as part of the QUALINET Industry Forum and Expo.

Additionally, for all presenters, please follow the instructions for presenters when preparing your preparing your workshop presentation. Please check the requirements and guidelines for both oral and poster presentations.

For oral presentation, please have your presentations ready on a USB stick and contact the session chair before your session to allow for pre-loading onto the venue computers.Note that poster presenters are invited to participate in a poster madness session which allows them to introduce their poster presentation orally. Please note that your poster madness presentation slides are due by June 30, 5pm (Pacific Time) to allow for pre-loading onto the venue computers. Please submit your slides without animations to slides@qomex2013.org using the paper ID with the following format X-YY.ppt(x) at which X={F,S} (full, short) and YY=[0-9][0-9].

Please note that the preliminary workshop program of QoMEX 2013 is available, subject to minor chances and updates. Currently the quality of weather experience is determined by the Ice Saints as you can see in the picture but the weather in July is expected to be much better, for sure!

Additionally, you might be looking for more information about the venue, accommodation, and transport. For those who plan to stay at the workshop venue, the Seepark Hotel, please make sure to complete your booking as soon as possible in order to get the prices listed here.

Multimedia applications have primarily engaged two of the human senses – sight and hearing. With recent advances in computational technology, however it is possible to develop applications that also consider, integrate and synchronize inputs across all senses, including tactile, olfaction, and gustatory. This integration of multiple senses leads to a paradigm shift towards a new mulsemedia (multiple sensorial media) experience, aligning rich data from multiple human senses. Mulsemedia brings with itself new and exciting challenges and opportunities in research, industry, commerce, and academia. This special issue solicits contributions dealing with mulsemedia in all of these areas. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

All submission guidelines of TOMCCAP, such as formatting, page limits and extensions of previously-submitted conference papers, must be adhered to. Please see the Authors Guide section of the TOMCCAP website for more details (http://tomccap.acm.org). To submit please follow these instructions:

Submit your paper through TOMCCAP’s online system http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tomccap. When submitting please use the Manuscript Type ‘Special Issue: MulSeMedia’ in the ManuscriptCentral system.

In your cover letter, include the information “Special Issue on Mulsemedia” and, if submitting an extended version of a conference paper, explain how the new submission is different and extends previously published work.

After you submit your paper, the system will assign a manuscript number to it. Please email this number to guesteditors2014@kom.tu-darmstadt.de together with the title of your paper.